Today in my History of the Present class we talked about the intertwined histories of democracy & media technology. We read this piece. I was interested to learn that most of my students pay 0 attention to YouTube's algorithm because they know it's crap. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
I also asked them what percentage of their friends do they think are on Facebook. Answers ranged from 5% to 15%. Most have an account. None used it as a way to get information about the world. FB to them was a joke.
This got me wondering how much of our current concern about the power the tech giants have over our minds is a generational issue. As in, 30 year olds and up see the damage FB is doing to our friends and family, and that's real. But what if most of the kids are alright?
This is obviously not a representative sample. These are college students in Oregon. But to them it seemed instinctual to know that much of what they see on social media is trying to deceive them.
We also read this great piece by @kawulf. I did my best, but I'm not sure I convinced my students that footnotes could be our saving grace. washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…
